‘This Is SportsCenter’ Super Bowl Sharks Commercial Reveals Left Shark’s ‘Secret Identity’

Katy Perry on stage at the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show. Reuters

ESPN’s latest “This Is SportsCenter” commercial reveals the “secret identities” of the two dancing sharks that dominated social media after Katy Perry’s performance earlier this month at Super Bowl XLIX. Entitled “Sharks,” the newly-released ad shows the “sharks” as they arrive back at ESPN’s snowy headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.

The “sharks” walk into an ESPN building and remove their costumes to reveal “SportsCenter” anchors John Anderson and Bram Weinstein. Both men complain that they had to perform in the halftime show, and Weinstein asks Anderson if his dance moves were up to par.

“I wasn’t too out of sync, was I?” Weinstein asked. “No and if you were I bet no one even noticed,” Anderson responded.

The ESPN commercial was a humorous reference to the avalanche of memes and gifs that populated the social media world after the so-called “Left Shark” appeared to fail to sync up his dance moves as part of Perry’s heavily-choreographed routine. But “Left Shark’s” on-stage flailing was all part of the plan, Perry choreographer RJ Durrell said on Feb. 2.

“The sharks were given two main objectives,” Durrell told the Hollywood Reporter. “One, perform Katy’s trademark moves to the ‘Teenage Dream’ chorus, which they both did perfectly; and two, to have loads of fun, and bring to life these characters in a cartoon manner, giving them a Tweedledee/Tweedledum-type persona.”

"Clearly, that was portrayed with the overzealous shark on the right hitting precise dance moves, while the left shark was playing up the more goofy, fun-spirited sports-fan mascot type, who was just happy to be at the Super Bowl,” Durrell added.

Eventually, professional dancer Bryan Gaw stepped forward to reveal that he played the role of “Left Shark” during the Super Bowl. The 30-year-old has danced for Perry for years and appeared in her “Prismatic World Tour” in 2014, according to Us Weekly. Just don’t tell that to Anderson and Weinstein.

ESPN’s “This Is SportsCenter” Super Bowl sharks commercial can be viewed below.